In Australian media news this week, two reports show the massive increase in online video viewing over the past 12 months – from IAB Australia and Adap.tv, and from Adobe. Yahoo7 launches a new Ad Exchange, The Guardian’s Australian site helps it to surpass the New York Times in unique viewers, and the commercial TV networks spend a record amount on Australian content. 

Online video advertising grows strongly

Video advertising grew by 78% last financial year, according to the second annual State of the Video Industry Report released by IAB Australia and Adap.tv.

The survey included more than 130 digital advertising media professionals from both the buying and selling sides. Other findings include:

• Buyers intend to increase their video advertising spend by 37% in the coming year,
• inventory levels have risen 42% in the last year,
• 86% of agencies use data to target or verify audiences for their buying decisions,
• 84% of buyers purchase direct from publishers, 66% through demand-side platforms and 38% through private marketplaces,
• 88% of buyers said scarcity of inventory was an issue,
• nearly two thirds of publishers’ CPMs have increased by 25% or more in the last year,
• a fifth of inventory is being purchased programmatically, and 60% of premium inventory is available through this method,
• 52% of publishers believe programmatic can assist with better merchandising of their inventory, and
• 80% of buyers are now purchasing mobile video inventory. This area showed the strongest growth from last year.

 

READ: Opinion: Video inventory can’t keep up with demand but it’s increasing – fast »

 

Online TV viewing almost quadruples

TV viewing across devices has grown 388% in the past year, according to the Adobe Digital Index.

The report’s findings are based on anonymous data from Adobe Marketing Cloud and Adobe Primetime. Other key year-on-year increases include:

• Unique monthly viewership of broadcast and cable networks’ online TV offerings increased by 146%,

• the amount of online TV content viewed per person grew by 55%,

• Game consoles and OTT devices grew 194%, the largest increase in market share of all devices,

• online TV via Android apps increased to by 28% to 20%, while browsers declined 41% to 19%. iOS apps continued to lead in market share with 51%,

• viewing of online movies increased 125% from two per month to 4.5 per month (for the first time surpassing the amount of sports content watched),

• viewing of episodic content on broadcast and cable networks increased by 81% per month,

• smartphones hosted more online video than tablets for the first time (14% compared with 13%),

• game consoles and OTT devices increased in market share by 127%, and

• viewers watching videos on desktop were three times more likely to finish 75% of the content, while only 17% of videos viewed on smartphones were watched through 75% completion.

 

Yahoo7 launches new Ad Exchange

Yahoo7 has launched a new Ad Exchange platform to increase targeting and optimisation capabilities and improve efficiencies for advertisers on its Yahoo7 and Yahoo New Zealand platforms.

Foxtel, Cadreon, Accuen and Vivaki are among the new platform’s launch partners.

The new service will use Yahoo Right Media technology to determine the most relevant and engaging ad placements across desktop, mobile and tablet.

Foxtel digital performance head Chris Smith says:

“Yahoo7’s approach to deliver a brand safe, premium marketplace with more optimisation and targeting options is perfectly aligned with Foxtel’s partner strategy and approach to programmatic advertising.”

Cadreon general manager Jessica White says the platform has already delivered strong results.

 

The Guardian grows to worlds second most popular online newspaper

The Guardian is partly attributing its growth to the world’s second most popular English-language newspaper website to its success in the Australian market.

Last month The Guardian passed the New York Times to reach the number two position, with 42.6 million unique visitors worldwide, according to the latest comScore report on desktop web usage.

The Guardian’s Australian unique audience figures have increased by 76% to 1.93 million since its May 2013 launch.

 

Commercial TV networks invest a record amount into Australian content

Commercial free-to-air broadcasters have increased their investment in Australian content by 11.6% to a record $1.54 billion in 12 months to June 2014.

79% of networks’ total spend is on Australian content, according to Free TV Australia.

Networks are also over-delivering on their 55% Australian content quota, showing an average of 64.3% on their main channels.